One of the unexpected surprises of the Teddy Stallard Story movie was the response we received from people working in the entrepreneurial, organizational and corporate environments.

While it was obviously perfect for teachers, parents and grandparents I had failed to realize that the most amazing value of this story is the emotion it stirs up in us all; it makes us want to be better people and treat each other, not just children, more affirmatively and compassionately.

And that’s the why the answer for us all lies in the transforming Power of Acknowledgment!

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
– Albert Einstein

Once, when I showed the Teddy Stallard movie to an audience of five hundred junior high and high school students, the groans, coos, ooos and ahhs were heart connecting.

When I asked for the students insights afterwards, they said that the movie:

1) made them realize that no one can ever really know what goes on in someone else’s house, and

2) in the words of many: “I realized that I really can make a difference.” I choked back my own tears. I had no idea how deeply and profoundly students of this age would experience this story.

“Mary, I just dropped my son at school after a very difficult morning … one of many. Patrick and I have one of those ‘clashing’ relationships where we are constantly bickering with one another. Your email arrived just in time and I watched the Teddy Stallard story. A box of tissues later I realize that ‘I Am’ the problem. I hear myself talking and that’s all I hear sometimes. Thanks for reminding me that if I want change, I need to create an environment of gratitude, laughter and encouragement. I know that, but today I needed the reminder and recharge. This time I won’t forget. Rather than respond to ‘my Teddy’s’ sarcastic tone, I’ll stop jumping in with an answer. We fight for independence. The mirror is a powerful tool and a very scary realization. Patrick is a wonderfully kind, sensitive, creative young man who has much to offer the people around him, including me. I just need to give him a chance to share that. I see more laughter in our household. That’s a good thing. Just need to keep it going. I learned something the other day …. the word ‘listen’ when you change the letters spells ‘silent’. Thank you.” – Terri Stanganelli

This story is about so much more than a child being lost in the school system; it is truly about the Power of One Educator to change a life forever, through the power of compassion.

When I’ve shown the movie to adult audiences, it still amazes me at how quickly it softens so many tough exteriors people believe they must project.

It’s been reported to me by others using the movie that when it has been shown to men in corporations, most of whom were directors, managers and owners, time after time many of these men openly admitted that they had to stop the movie to collect themselves.

One Fortune 500 company owner told me personally that, while he had heard the story many times before, he still ended up using his shirt sleeve to wipe away the outpour of tears.

Conversely, when women in corporations watched the movie, the reports came in that they did not initially admit to being emotionally affected by it. Only with a little additional prodding would they admit that they were deeply affected and that they did in fact (silently) cry!

I’ve had a “director” personality style woman come up to me and say, “I knew at the start of the story what you were going to try to make me cry, and I was determined not to, but when Teddy said, “You smell like my mom used to” you got me! I cried buckets and it felt long overdue.

When I was traveling around the country speaking in the late 90’s, one of the things I was asked most often at Women’s Conferences was, “How do I not get emotional—or cry—at work?” Men, on the other hand, are now learning how to access – to healthier degrees – their emotional selves, and this is generating vast improvement in how we treat each other.

Men and women alike are all products of our childhoods and our environments. There are a lot of lost and lonely people moderately functioning in our places of work and community. To generate a home and work environment that brings out the very best in people, you simply keep acknowledging people like they really matter.

Compassionate connection does this in the face of any kind of undesirable behavior or absence of healthy relating and fulfilling productivity.

Which is exactly why I’ve included this and other heart opening movies in my UTrain program so that you can be the difference maker where you live and work…

This movie is a GREAT way to KICK OFF any event or in-service …

You can get this movie individually or in our Make A Difference UTrain Program.

I understand that there are those who are concerned that a DAY, WEEK, MONTH or YEAR long program will be overwhelming. As an educator and business woman I can tell you that this is exactly why I designed Make A Difference with the Power of Acknowledgment UTrain Program the way that I did.

It is an extremely flexible program with a simple system that you can bring to your people one of many ways for your theme:

Make A Difference DAY
Make A Difference WEEK
Make A Difference MONTH
Make A Difference YEAR

Now, you can take my ideas and create your own program which will cost you a lot of time and energy that you could be putting toward the other demands coming at you at this time of year OR you can grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax. I’ve got this covered. I’ve done all of the heavy lifting for you.

Because it’s that time of year when leaders are thinking about their THEME for the fall and winter seasons just ahead, today I’d like to do something I haven’t done before and that is lay out what a 12 month Make A Difference YEAR can look like:

August: Kick off In-Service with your top tier leaders setting the theme of Making A Difference with the Power of Acknowledgment Movie and I Make A Difference Ceremony. Your leaders then take the session you just did with them out to their people and they take this session out to their people, etc…

September: Make A Difference with the Power of Connecting Personality Styles.October: Make A Difference with the Power of Owning Your Greatness.

November: Make A Difference with the Power of Compassion with the Teddy Stallard Story: both in English and in Española.December: Make A Difference with the Power of Positive Self-Talk.

=> Each Session has it’s own movie, discussion and building community (team) activities all laid out for you step by step.

=> You don’t even have to prepare ahead of time (I would but that’s just me).

=> You open up the designated Session and play the movie and follow my directions.

=> When time has run out, you wrap it up and save back whatever you haven’t used for another In-service when you need it.

Now, let’s say for example you want to Kick-Off your Make A Difference Year with the Teddy Stallard Story Movie instead of the Acknowledgment Movie.

Then you get to decide! Move it up into your first Session and go ahead and launch.

Then you can move the Acknowledgment Movie back to September which will coincide with National Suicide Prevention Month. This movie is a true story about how a very simple and heartfelt Acknowledgment Ceremony caused the actions of one teacher to dramatically altered the life a business man and his 14-year old son.

YES! You Can Do This …

You will see that this program …

– Everyone just gets smarter! Increased EQ – (Emotional Quotient) & IQ for ALL.
– Reduces the discipline issues by getting disconnected people CONNECTED within a compassionate community of their peers.
– Increases productivity, performance and results.
– Creates the type of “safe to connect” site wide working environment in which every one will THRIVE.
– Shifts perceptions and creates innovative solutions for problematic behaviors.
– Engages a diverse group of people in thinking, understanding and developing compassion and extending it out to others as well as themselves.
– Causes people to make the 12 inch move from the heads to their hearts to better understand their impact on one another and that they DO Matter and the DO Make A Difference.
– Helps every one take more ownership over their choices in every area of their developing lives.
– Increases an inner sense of one’s life purpose, one’s connection to others and one’s sense of purpose in the world to be reaching to make a difference each and every day.
– Develops highly empowering LISTENING skills.
– Encourages every one to embrace their dreams and become self-motivated and collaborative in purposeful endeavors.
– Greatly improves internal self-talk, motivation and communication with disgruntled colleagues and friends.
– Helps people “find their voice” in ways that they can be heard.

Is today the day you really grab a hold of your life and own it!?

Master’s in Educational Psychology Counseling and Development K-12 from the University of Nebraska; demonstrated expertise with every imaginable label awarded childhood behaviors, physical attributes and learning styles. She parlayed her phenomenal success with at-risk youth into Continuing Education Courses for Portland State University on how to be energetically effective educators. For the past two decades, she has taken her exceptional programs to educational professionals, business leaders, entrepreneurs, corporate managers and administrative assistants conducting training and consulting on how to be effective in creating improvement in their organizations through the power of Team Synergy.

PPS … Let’s not forget that if you have been feeling like there’s something more that you want to do, you can take this program beyond where you currently work by becoming a Certified Make A Difference Facilitator. For those who feel the pull to make a difference and a living at this, I will give you 1:1 time every step a long the way.